This invention relates to a passbook printing apparatus used with e.g. an automatic depositing machine having a function to handle record documents such as passbooks.
Recently, automatic depositing machines with the aforesaid function have been developed and put to practical use.
With one such automatic depositing machine, on-line processing requires registering of unregistered information for transactions preceeding the transaction concerned, such as information for transactions made only by means of a magnetic card or information derived from automatic transfer account transactions, as information to be printed on passbooks and other record documents (hereinafter referred to simply as passbooks), not to mention printing of the information for the transaction concerned.
Incidentally, there has recently been developed and put to practical use automatic depositing machines capable of handling passbooks which have a partial magnetic medium stuck to the back cover thereof. Namely, these passbooks have a function of magnetic cards as well as that of conventional passbooks. In the automatic depositing machine, the aforementioned transaction information is printed on a passbook which is opened and inserted into the machine through an inlet, and also similar transaction information is separately printed on a journal paper contained in the machine for the purpose of totalization of transactions or duplication.
As for transaction information for automatic cash dispensing machines which make transactions by means of identification cards instead of passbooks, they are printed on the passbook and journal paper with a terminal apparatus by a bank clerk in charge when a user later brings and submits the passbook to the teller's window of a bank.
However, in the prior art apparatus, whether the automatic depositing machine or terminal apparatus, separate printing mechanisms, especially platens, are provided for passbook printing and for journal paper printing. That is, printing positions for the passbook and the journal paper are defined independently in the machine. Under the existing circumstances, therefore, the machine cannot help being large-sized, and the printing mechanism is complicated in structure and uneconomical.
A prior art registering terminal apparatus as shown in FIG. 1, for example, is installed in each branch office of a bank or some other financial agency. Account transaction information for a passbook to undergo registering are called out by on-line communication with a central computer located in an office management center, and printed on the passbook and a journal paper.
Referring now to the drawing of FIG. 1, there are shown a passbook a, a record document b other than a passbook, such as a journal paper for duplication, a platen c for the printing of the passbook a, a platen d for the journal paper b, a carriage e moving in parallel with the platens c and d, and a printing head f, e.g. a type-wheel.
As may be seen from FIG. 1, the platens c and d are provided separately, so that the apparatus naturally becomes wide. Namely, a width l is so large that the apparatus requires a very wide setting space in the business office.
The prior art apparatus using passbooks involves further problems. If the last column on a double-spread page of a passbook inserted in the apparatus is reached and further entry is needed while the passbook is undergoing the printing operation, the passbook is once returned to the user. Then, the user turns over a leaf to get the next page, and inserts it again into the apparatus for continued printing.
When the passbook is once returned, however, an unaccustomed user might discontinue the operation on the apparatus in spite of his being in the middle of the registering operation, coming to a hasty conclusion that the transaction is over. Then, the user who has suspended the operation would not be able to perform registering of the remaining informations, and besides a user next to him would unknowingly insert his passbook to start his due transaction, but in vain.
In order to prevent such trouble, it is necessary that the passbook once inserted in the apparatus should not be returned to the user before all the transaction information is printed on the passbook. To attain this, there is a demand for a page turning mechanism which enables automatic turning of the leaves of the passbook within the apparatus.